Swim Turns Into Run For Thames Adventurer

Quick update on Lewis Pugh, who you may remember is the crazy lawyer attempting to swim the entire length of the Thames. Well, he’s been stymied right from the start - by a lack of water.

Upon reaching the source of the Thames in Kemble, Gloucestershire, Pugh discovered that the drought is indeed real, and that the water level was too low to allow swimming. (Though isn’t that usually the case at the source of a river, unless you’re a frog?)

Undeterred, he decided to jog the first 20 miles, until the river became sufficiently wet. The swim should take him around 15 days, and it’s all in the name of promoting awareness of global warming.

And his biggest fear? Swans. Bastard, violent swans.

‘They can be very vicious,’ he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. ‘They do get a bit agitated.’